Did you know it’s possible to kill a lake? It is; it happened to Lake Erie. And a scientist who studied that catastrophe sees a similar pattern repeating with Lake Winnipeg. Why does it matter in Minot?
The culprit is nutrient loading — particularly phosphorous. If you’ve noticed algae blooms in Minot’s river, you know we have our own phosphorous problem. What you may not be aware of — the Mouse River becomes the Souris River in Canada; then it flows into the Assiniboine which flows into the Red River which flows into Lake Winnipeg. In other words, we’re upstream and the problem is starting to show downstream. Get the full canary-in-the-coal-mine article from the Winnipeg Free Press.
